Halford & Brough in the Morning - The World Cup Bump

Episode Date: February 27, 2026

In hour two, Mike & Jason preview tomorrow's Whitecaps matchup at Toronto FC with Apple TV+ MLS host Kevin Egan (5:30), they discuss the 'Caps stadium situation with MLS marketing & stadium specialist Kyle Sheldon (24:25), plus the boys hear from Elliotte Friedman via the 32 Thoughts Podcast on the latest around the Canucks trade rumours (39:50).  This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Happy Friday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Do you have paid a loan debt? If you do, Sands and Associates could cut your debt by up 80% with no upfront fees. Visit them today at sands-trustee.com. We are now in our two of the program, AJ from AJ's Piztonney's Broadway. It's going to join us in just a moment here. To kick off hour two, hour two is brought to you by Jason Hominock at Jason.

If you love giving the banks more your money, then don't let Jason shop. pop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at Jason. Don Mortgage. We are coming to live from the Kintech studio, new year, new opportunity for comfort with orthotics from Kintech. Guests on SportsNet 650, call in on the ABLE Auctions hotline. Email sales at A-B-L-E.

A-B-L-E auctions.ca. No, you don't actually, I should, now people are going to write Able-A-A-B-A-Octions. Right. Singular. Email sales at A-B-B-L-E-L-A-Oxions. A-B-L-E-Octions.C-A to get your business assets sold and your building cleared. You cleaned it up, very ably.

Well done. Which is spelled A-B-L-Y. Don't do that. Stop now. A-B-E-L-Y. Let's go now to the Able Auctions hotline. Our next guest might be getting too famous for our show. It's AJ from A-J's pizza on East Broadway.

What up, AJ? What is going on? How is everybody? We're good. your star is shining brighter than this show can handle for those of you that don't know what I'm talking about AJ's was recently shouted out

in an interview with heated rivalry star Hudson Williams and this was the best part he did it so casually he couldn't remember the exact name of the pizza place that he loved but he remembered specific details about the pizza right and that pizza place was AJ's pizza

what did he say were the details it was like it was good he had to Detroit he said it was he said it was greasy greatness or something. So Teresa sends me the screenshot. And I'm like, oh, that's nice. All right. I'm like, who's that?

And she like, says, she's like, it's Hollander. I'm like, oh, there's a new Highlander show. But then, of course, I have to go Google it. And I'm like, I'm like, I must be the only person on the planet who has no idea about this show of this guy. But it was great. It's very reflective of our current society that I googled A.J.'s Hudson Williams. and there are 93 articles that have been written about the heated rivalry guy

talking about his favorite pizza place in Vancouver. So kudos to you. It's all great. And now, if he ever comes back anytime soon, Hudson Williams can check out. Not just the Vancouver location, but the Tuasun location as well. Get us up to speed. Everything's going out. It's a splashdown.

Yeah, I'll give you a quick rundown. So, Tuosso, obviously, still take out delivery four to nine tonight, one to nine Saturday and Sunday. Get your pre-orders in. It's been pretty busy, which is awesome. so thank you very much to that whole community. And hey, last but not least, obviously, we know Vancouver's open, but I want to win Uncle of the Year award. Let's go.

So a little shout out to my niece, Demi, who turned seven last week, and I forgot it, so happy belated. And then a shout out today to Noah, who turns four. So there you go. And Demi and Noah are both huge fans of the Halpert and Brough Show. They are. Yeah, that's a really good. Four years old, the Hill age out soon.

I'm kind of tired of this. Visit AJ's this weekend. Visit AJ's this weekend. 325 East Broadway, 3278s Broadway. And of course, out in Tuasson at Big Splash. AJ, you are Uncle of the Year. Thanks for doing this today, bud. Thank you guys so much.

Have a great weekend. Yeah, you too, bud. Thanks. That's AJ from AJ's Pizza on East Broadway here on the Halford and Bruff Show on Sportsnet. I thought you were going to ask him if he was going to be sad that he called it Chicago-style pizza in the clip. We were going to try and gloss over. The finite details of the plug. We're missing.

That must have stung when he said that. Because Chicago, here's the thing. Chicago is a deep dish pizza. Detroit is almost the exact opposite. It's so much fluffy dough and it's really high up. It's not deep dish at all. So it makes it good. Yeah, and it's great.

As opposed to deep dish style, which is not good. Andy is eaten several, several of them over the course of time. Okay. For those of you that are looking for more Kinnuckstock or more NHL talk, we're going to take a brief reprieve because we've got two different soccer guests coming up. Kevin Egan is going to join us in a moment here from MLS season pass on Apple. And then after him, Kyle Sheldon is going to join us. This is obviously going to be white caps related, very specifically white caps related.

So there's lots on the horizon. At 8 o'clock, Rick Dollywall is going to join the program. And apparently we've got some audio from Friege's latest 32 thoughts as well as it pertains to the Vancouver Canucks. So we got a lot to get into on the program today. But joining us now, very excited to have them back on the program. Studio analyst for MLS season pass on Apple. MLS 360 host.

Kevin Egan joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Morning, Kevin, how are you? I'm wonderful, thanks. Always a great pleasure to join you guys. How are you?

We're great, and it's great having you back on the program, and it's great to have MLS back as well. Week 1 is in the books, week two is on the horizon. The White Caps play tomorrow,

630 at BC place against Toronto FC. With the MLS season kicking off, I wanted to cover some big picture stuff with you, and just how big and how influential this league has become.

I know I saw the press release from the league about the astronomical numbers that the league did in week one, both in terms of attendance in stadiums and then the viewership numbers. And then if you go down and you look at the star power that is being unveiled in MLS this season with Mueller in Vancouver and Sun in L.A.

and Messi in Miami and maybe Griesman on the way as well. These are very exciting times for MLS right now, Kev. I think you're spot on. I love the fact that you started here because I've actually been thinking so much about this all week long about the impact of the blockbuster superstar to come to the league from afar.

And yeah, sometimes like Thomas Muller, you're a little bit older in their career, but they're still having a massive impact. Not only, like for Thomas Muller, for me, it's not only on the field, his charisma, his jovial nature, everything about the way he's adopted Vancouver as his hometown now and the way he deals with the media,

you know, the fun he has with Vancouver, Hoover's in-house host, Sarita, is great. We all love to see that. And I think now you're seeing, you know, Sun, Young Min do the same thing with L-AFC. Hamas Rodriguez, with his 47 million Instagram followers and his mega superstar personality, he goes to Minnesota, Griesman, like you say, on the way to Orlando, apparently. So it's a wild time when you think about the amount of stars in the league right now, as the World Cup is rapidly approaching across North America. It's a special time. And I was so happy to see the view and figures. 9.7 million people watching our live games around the world is a great number for Major League Soccer, want to be proud of. And I felt

it in the moment hosting MLS 360. I was watching the hashtag MLS 360, you know, all the all the hashtags coming through in the comments. And I said to my teammates, I said, this is far beyond what we've ever had. And this was just in the opening, you know, half hour of the show. But it's because we're no longer on MLS season past, no longer that extra subscription. So everybody that has Apple TV can tune in all around the world now. It's much easier to consume Major League Soccer this season.

How far has MLS come? I think when I think about it, I broadcast my first MLS game in 2012, and it was Chicago at Montreal, the inaugural match for Montreal at the Olympic Stadium. And we did it from a NASCAR studio

in Charlotte because we couldn't afford to send us to Montreal and it was just too tricky and the infrastructure wasn't in place and now I think about how my dad and mom in Dublin Ireland watch games live on their phone or they can watch our shows

on their phone or on the TV and just how easy it is so I think the league has come a long way one of the biggest areas though I'd love to point out is the academies and the talent coming through and we saw it last week with the Red Bulls Michael Bradley's the head coach now of the Red Bulls

and he brings in three players is 17 and younger. Two 16-year-old starting, you know, like Adri Mametti, this kid that played as a holding midfielder, clearly has top-end talent. He blew me away with his abilities. And I think you're going to see it this season. Hopefully Ryan Alumi is a player that continues to develop

and really pushes Brian White for that number nine spot. And I think all around the league, we're starting to see the talents come through. You know, Cabin Sullivan's obviously had in the Manchester City from Philadelphia. And if you combine that, you know, the academy kids with the high-end superstars, and then obviously you want to bring in the talent in their prime from South America as well. I think it's a lovely mix for Major League Soccer to keep growing.

What are the ambitions for the league? Because they've come a long way, but they're still a ways away from the leagues in England and Spain and Germany and France and Italy. Are there ambitions to get there? Because sometimes I wonder, you know, like with the people that are involved in, the league and the money and the deep pocketness of some of these people like they don't want to be known as a tier three or a tier two league in the world. They want to be tier one. Yeah, 100%. But I definitely think there's roadblocks. You know, one of them is obvious in that we live in the United States where I live in Canada and the amount of competitive sports that are just

the best in the world that are considered like the NFL is. is going to dominate. And that's not going to change anytime soon. NHL. NHL is a league that major league soccer feels it can surpass and compete with. You know, I saw an article in the Economist recently that said that soccer is the number three. That's the third most popular sport in the U.S. now,

surpassing baseball. So all these things take time. I actually spoke with Michael Bradley a couple of months ago about this, about the ambitions, about the long-term growth. And he said it's happening. The way he responded to me was, it's happening, but when you're in the weeds and you're in it on a daily basis consuming it, you don't see the growth.

And it's only when you step back, you remove yourself from, and you say, where were we 10 years ago? And I think this league has made massive strides. And hopefully now, with Apple TV being open for everybody, you know, with Major League Soccer, that more and more people will consume it and enjoy it. And I think also, you know, I made a prediction last week. It was just a fun, bold take,

that the newcomer of the year in MLS this year is someone who doesn't even play in the league yet. because I think after the World Cup, we're going to see an influx of big-time stars that feel the atmosphere in Canada and the US in Mexico and that want to come and play in North America. And let's welcome them in and hope that we see more and more stars come in

and that the roster rules start to open up a little bit more and there's more money spent on squads. Because I think in Vancouver you can see it. The difference that having a guy like Thomas Motor makes is astronomical. But if the roster rules open up, is a team like Vancouver going to be in a tough position financially? Yeah, I mean, maybe, maybe, but I also think that, you know, we shouldn't shy away from that. It's, like, I like what Miami are doing. Miami are pushing the envelope. They're driving the

standards forward. I think LASC are driving the standards forward as well. And it's a case of Catch me if you can. It's a case of can you keep up with what these teams are doing. Now, you do have others out there, like Philadelphia, have not spent a ton of money. Their record spend, I think, on a player is before $5 million. But they consistently

produce talent from their academy. They consistently play a certain way so that the academy kids understand the Philly way when they come through to the first team. And that's been really well executed. So they always compete. Their supporter shield winners

from last season, beating Miami and their money that they spent. And then, of course, you have, you know, a team like San Diego that come out of the blocks and they understand who they are very early under Mikey Varus and heaps, the sporting director. So there's different ways to do this. There's no one way of winning. And I think, you know, for me, Axel Schuster in Vancouver, recruiting Esper Sorensen, just a personality that's so diametrically opposed everything Vanity Sartini was. And I don't mean

that in a bad way. I just think he's so unassuming and composed and a deep thinker. And I've just been wowed and so impressed by everything the Esper Sauranson's done. So there's no one way of winning. You know, figure it out in Vancouver have obviously figured it out under Sarringson and from top to bottom in that team now, from Blackman at the back, Yohe, in goal

and the midfield of Cubas and Burrhalter, Brian White's scoring goals. This is a really, really good team in Vancouver. We're speaking to Kevin Egan, Apple TV, MLS host here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. You know, speaking of Vancouver Whitecaps managers, a former manager has now got one of

the glamor jobs in MLS and that's Mark DeS Santos at LAFC. For those that didn't see it, LAFC kicked off the season against Inter Miami and Messi, 75,000 people in attendance at the Coliseum. It was a huge spectacle in LASC and DeSantos emerged with

a victory. We, for those that don't know, back in our previous iteration of the show, we had Mark on the show on a weekly basis and love talking to him, super interesting guy speaks approximately 93 languages at last count. Never really had the foster here in Vancouver.

We always felt like he got a tough, a raw deal here in Vancouver. So it's nice to see him get some success elsewhere. But tell me a little bit more about this dynamic because it's a big job. He is managing some massive players with a really high expectation level for one of the league's glamour clubs. But at the very least right now, off to a very good start for Mark DeSantos. You know, I'll never forget one of my best friends, Richie Ryan. He's a guy from Ireland who played in Canada, played in the U.S. he's now coaching with Cincinnati youth teams

and he was playing at Ottawa and I asked him about his coach at the time Mark DeSantis and he said Kev he's the best coach I've ever had in my life and Ritchie's played in the Premier League and some some good clubs and he said he's the best coach I've ever had because he's so detailed he's so consistent with his message

and he's such a good person so he practices all that he preaches and I've always kind of followed his career knowing the character that Ritchie is and knowing that he wouldn't have said that about someone if he didn't truly be. So for me, Marcus Santos,

I take his word as a great guy and obviously he's very detail-oriented, wants to have more of the ball, but we still saw more of an LASC from last year in that game against Miami, very transitional, counter-attacking with quality and obviously put Miami to the sword, but I think that LASC have picked a guy

who, for the masses, would seem underwhelming. When you have a job like LASC available, and a lot of coaches apparently around the world, big-name coaches wanted that job, but they've gone to the guy who was the assistant. And I think the reason for that is they've probably looked internally and said, done, Buonga, you know, Aaron Long,

Hugo Larice, what do you guys think? And I guarantee they all said, Mark, Mark's the guy. Aaron Long was a guest of ours on MLS 360 last year. And he came in and I asked him, he was injured and I asked him and said, who for the job, you know, and he said, oh, we've got two assistants that I think are going for the job. and he said, I think one of them will get it. And he wouldn't tell me which one he was talking about,

but I had a strong feeling he was talking to Marcus Santos. And I wish him well. I think it's one of those great stories that if we can promote from within the league and have great success rather than always having to go abroad, it's a good thing for the quality coming through, I think. One more before we let you go here, Kev. June 5th in Montreal, the Canadian men's national team in a warm-up, their final friendly before the People World Cup

are going to be taking on the Republic of Ireland. The question for you, when Canada takes on the Republic of Ireland on June 5th? Will it be a battle? Will it be a battle of two World Cup-bound teams? Yes, it will. Yes, it will. I'm a glass-half-fold type of fella.

Even when it looked like we were absolutely heading to the exit door, I was on a group text with my friends from school and saying, no, no, lads, believe we can beat Armenia, we can get a result against Portugal, we can go and beat Hungary, and sure enough, we needed to win all three games in the end and we did it. And now there's a bit of momentum,

which hasn't existed with the Irish national football team since probably 2016 in the Euros, maybe even further than that. There's more momentum now than there has been, maybe since I'd say 2002, the last time we made a World Cup. So Troy Parrott's scoring goals over in Holland.

We've got a decent defense, a very good goalkeeper in Cleveland, Calah. We've got a chance. We've got a chance to go to Prague beat check yet and if we win that game we go back to Dublin on March 31st to play most likely Denmark it's Denmark or North Macedonia

yeah that's gonna be tough any team back in Dublin hopefully no they're very good at the day but any team back in Dublin with the 12th man of the Irish fans it gives us a chance and I'm co-owner I'm opening up an Irish pub actually Irish pub and restaurant next to Mercedes Ben Stadium and State Farmariener so if Ireland

make it the Irish exit is going to be out the door You had a good rugby win over England the other day. Did you see that? Big time. Of course I did. Yeah. Nobody expected that too. To go there and win is always very satisfying, guys.

Ireland's sports talk continues on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet. We're going around the globe. It's what we do here. Kev, we're running up against it for time. We've got to get going. Enjoy all the matches this weekend. Hopefully, match week two of MLS. This is exciting as match week one.

We'll do this again as we get on later throughout the season and closer to the World Cup as well. Appreciate you guys so much. Real quickly, by the way, I told you how I feel about England. How do you guys feel about Toronto? So I can use it on the broadcast on Saturday. No, I mean, it's funny. We would consider it a rivalry if TFC ever mixed in a win every now and again.

But right now it's been pretty dominant for the Whitecaps over the lines. I mean, I think it's been like multiple Canadian championships. And then over the course of MLS play, the Vancouver Whitecaps have had a pretty good run as well. TFC has their eyes on a guy, right? Josh Sargent, yeah. I don't know if he's going to be eligible to play on the weekend. I don't think he's going to be ready yet. But Sargent or no, I'm pretty confident that the Whitecaps are going to merge with three points this weekend.

So feel free to use that on the broadcast. I will have no jinx. Thank you for the content. Yeah, thanks, buddy. Thanks, Kevin. I appreciate it. Yeah. That's Kevin Egan from MLS 360 coverage, Apple TV, MLS here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet.

650. Kyrin that comes up on a, like, Halford & Brough, trash, Toronto FC. What a bunch of losers. Do you say that? If they want to make that. If they want to mix in a win any time over the course of this rivalry, feel free. It's been all Vancouver recently.

Where do you want to go now? I am going to do the one to watch, brought to you by Limitless A.V. So there's four games on the slate tonight in the National Hockey League. And given that we were sort of like bereft of NHL play for so long, I feel like I need to highlight an NHL game almost every night. You know what? Ahead of his appearance on Saturday Night Live, why not watch Quinn Hughes

in the Minnesota Wild tonight? They got a good win over Colorado last night. That was a big win over Colorado last night. That was a statement win. And Joel Erickson Eck with two goals last night, if I'm not mistaken, Quinn Hughes with a couple of assists in that one. So they go into Utah tonight and the second of a back-to-back to take on the Utah mammoth

who are in a fight for one of those wild card spots in the Western Conference, and they had a loss in their first game coming back from the Olympic break. So there you have it. Only four games on the slate tonight. So why not take it? in 6 o'clock our time, the Minnesota Wild and Quinn Hughes, going to Utah to take on the mammoth.

That is your one to watch, brought to by Limitless AV, Vancouver's most trusted audiovisual integration experts, specializing in seamless video conferencing solutions and hybrid workspaces. Book your personalized tour of their experience center today at limitlessav.c.c.a.c. Okay, we're going to set up the rest of the show right now. Coming up on the other side of the break, we're going to do a little bit more soccer slash football, MLS talk, but with a more specific Vancouver lean, I think, and that's with Kyle Sheldon. He is a soccer business and marketing expert. We're going to talk to him a lot about MLS stadiums.

Obviously, with regards to the Vancouver Whitecaps, there's the on-pitch product, which we've talked about. There's also the unresolved stadium situation. Kyle is written and covered at length a lot of these MLS clubs that have gone out and built soccer-specific stadiums that they own and they operate. They're not tenants. They're not leasing. They own and operate them. And what that means from a business perspective and why it is so much more advantageous and why, obviously, the white caps want to have their own stadium, that they control and operate, that isn't this gargantuan 57,000 seat stadium that they're currently

playing in right now that, quite frankly, is too big for them. And if you look across MLS, fewer and fewer teams, have a setup like the white caps have. So Kyle's going to join us at 730. We can also talk about the impact that the 2026 FIFA World Cup is going to have on all of the host cities, including Vancouver. And a reminder, we're 104 days out from the start of the World Cup.

Coming up at 8 o'clock, Rick Dollywall is going to join the program for his usual Friday hit. We're going to talk to him about the Tyler Myers looming trade and any other possible Canucks trades. We're going to talk to him about why the Canucks might have Ivar Stenberg rated ahead of Gavin McKenna going into the 2026 NHL entry draft. We're also going to talk to him

and he's going to relay a nice story, Jason, about how Rick Tocke and Elias Pedersen met up and connected at the Olympics over in Italy. So that's coming up at 8 o'clock. And then finally, finally, it's Friday. It's Ask Us Anything Friday. I still don't think we've actually done

and Ask Us Anything and we're halfway through the show, but we will remedy that. Well, Peter and Cloverdale hasn't asked us anything. He says, please explain to me why Vancouver can't compete with other MLS cities. Well, listen to our next interview on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Hey, it's Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. Get your daily dose of Canucks Talk with us weekdays from 12 to 2 on Sportsnet 650.

Or catch up on demand through your favorite podcast app. 7.30 on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. Sweet, sweet Friday. You are listening to the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. Halford and Brum of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. You have payday loan debt? If you do, Sands and Associates can cut your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees.

Visit them today at sands-trustee.com. We're in our two of the program, also known as the Fitbaugh hour here on the Halford & Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. Kyle Sheldon's going to join us in just a moment here for a little more footy talk. Hour two of this program is brought to by Jason Hominoch at Jason. dot mortgage. If you love giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at jason.orgage. Our next guest is a soccer business and marketing expert, the founder and CEO of not one, but two soccer-specific companies.

Kyle Sheldon joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. He joins us, courtesy the ABLE Auctions hotline. Good morning, Kyle. How are you? Good morning. It's great to be with you. Thank you for that very warm intro. I always appreciate the word expert used. I'll do my best. Yeah, well, we don't throw it around loosely here. We consider ourselves experts at radio,

but in the next five minutes, you'll find out that we're not really. Anyway, I want to ask you about stadiums in MLS. And it's a hot button issue here in Vancouver, obviously with everything that's gone on over the last year and dating back even earlier. My question for you to start real simple, stadium ownership,

why has it become so important? for MLS clubs. Yeah, it's a great question. And for those who followed MLS, have seen a really big shift over the course of the last 10, 15 years, and really across professional sports, but I think especially in soccer.

And you really got sort of three models across MLS. You have those that are fully privately owned, right? The owner of the club owns the stadium, owns the land, kind of owns all of the infrastructure. You have about 10 of those across MLS. And then you've got 15 or so clubs, 16 clubs, we have a public-private partnership where it's really a combination of ownership, right? The local city or state government might own some part of it, as does the club. It's funded in different ways, et cetera.

And then you've only got a handful like you guys have in Vancouver, where it's really fully owned and operated by the public, by the government. And it really has a massive impact on a club's ability to be successful. This is a league and a sport that's still growing in North America. revenue is still growing. It has grown, but being able to control your stadium, especially when you think about sponsorship, but inclusive of concessions and parking and all of the other game day revenue that is possible, clubs that control their own buildings, they own all of it. Clubs that have a public-private partnership control and have some of it, and those that have public building typically don't have much as any. So it's a pretty big gap between those three different styles of ownership. Can you give an example? of a team that owns its own stadium and maybe is doing even more around its stadium to provide even more value and more revenue and more profits? Yeah, I think you're seeing, right? You're seeing the phrase that gets thrown around is mixed use development, right, around

the stadium. And so the one that comes to mind immediately is Austin FC in Texas. They own the stadium, privately funded building. And they've built a bunch of infrastructure in and around. around it, right? There's housing, there's restaurants, there's entertainment. I've been to that stadium a couple times. And, you know, it's outside the downtown core, but they've created a destination. And it's not far outside the downtown core, so it's easy to get to. You're seeing similar things in other markets, Minnesota United, which sits between Minneapolis and St. Paul and

and Minnesota. The development at that stadium is a little behind schedule, I think, where they want to be. But the idea is to build that infrastructure around it. And, you know, you have to remember that all these owners, by and large, are business people as well. So they certainly, maybe with some exceptions, care about the sport and the city and the community. You know, they're trying to run a profitable business at the end of the day. So, you know, they're finding ways to build in and around the stadium that also drive revenue. And those who care deeply about the sport are reinvesting some of that money back into the club. And then there are others who may be just pocketing a few extra bucks.

So the white caps are in a pure lease situation with BC plays. which is owned by the provincial government. How does that limit them? Well, just to what I spoke to earlier, right, as you think about those potential places you could drive additional or incremental revenue, it's pretty common knowledge around MLS circles that the lease situation in Vancouver is,

if it's not the worst in MLS, it's pretty darn close, and it might very well be the worst. And you can take a very simple example, which is if you have a privately owned stadium, you have the ability to sell, naming rights to that stadium and, you know, that can be tens of millions of dollars on an annual basis for a club. You know, even those that are privately and publicly, part of that private public partnerships, I think almost all of them, if not all of them,

have naming rights deals. So that's just one very big example. It's the biggest example. But yeah, the public private partnership model, even those, there's almost always a pretty healthy share of concessions, parking, and other revenue around the stadium. So, it's a pretty limiting factor. And I don't know the intimate details of those, the deal there in Vancouver. But, yeah, it's pretty common knowledge that it's not a good lease for the club

and has had real ramifications on their ability to grow, to grow the business and grow the club. And ultimately create a sustainable property that can continue to find success. What about the speed of doing things, if you want to call them activations or sponsorships? You know, the Whitecaps would, I imagine, have to go to BC Place,

Pathco is the Crown Corporation that owns it and be like, hey, can we do this as opposed to like, we're going to do this because we own our stadium. Oh, absolutely. I mean, I don't think you mentioned your intro, but I've worked for three MLS clubs in Seattle, Chicago, and D.C. And in all cases, you know, those buildings that are owned by the city, as was the case in Chicago at Soldier Field,

It's one of the only other stadiums in MLS that is owned by the public. Man, everything is harder, right? It's the ability to even set up something on the concourse as a one-off has to go through layers of approval. You know, there's obviously a lot of people make a lot of jokes about government bureaucracy. Well, when your building is owned by the government, that those layers just do exist. And of course, it ebbs and flows and some are better than others. but the fact is it makes it very difficult to move quickly. It makes it difficult to sell into sponsors, right?

There's limitations on what we might be able to do in our own building. And increasingly, sponsors are looking for places where they can activate, have presence, build really unique experiences. The best sponsorships are those that are adding value to the fan experience. And if you have major limitations on what you can do in your own building, then you have major limitations in the revenue you can drive. So you're talking about maybe like minor or even major renovations that you could do that could be headlined by a sponsor? Yeah, think about if you own your own building, you decide you want to, you know, take out a corner of the building in the southeast corner of your stadium and actually build something that is, you know, generated towards fan experience or driven towards fan experience.

You don't have to ask permission to do that if you own the building. If it's private, you know, if it's a private public partnership, of course, there's a that level of movement would require some approval. Yeah, it just limits your flexibility and it limits your speed. So all of those things have a knock on effect. I advise a lot of brands who want to spend money in soccer to reach soccer fans. And there are just hurdles that when you're assessing potential partnerships where you're going to spend, you know, often millions of dollars, sometimes tens of millions of dollars, where you're just kind of off the table right off the bat because of the hurdles and the challenges. And it just, it really is a limiting factor that it can. can't really be quantified because those conversations aren't out in the public, right?

Those conversations are happening between agencies like mine and private companies who have millions of dollars to spend. But I can just tell you from experience, whether it's a stadium or a player sponsorship or a club sponsorship, if it's easier to activate a brand as a sponsor, those go to the top of the list. Tell us about the appetite for brands to get involved in soccer. Well, it's growing at an incredible rate. I've been in the sport for 20 years. I started at DC United in 2005. My agency's a little over three years old,

and obviously, and you guys will have it in your backyard there with the World Cup coming this summer. Everybody sort of understands to an extent what this summer will mean and that it will be the biggest sporting event in human history. But the acceleration of the sport across North America over the last five to 10 years has surpassed my expectations. That's someone who's been in it, played it, and loved it for my entire life. it's growing by leaps and bounds.

And so we're hearing from brands and companies who understand and see that growth. They don't quite know how to navigate it. They don't quite know how to reach the different segments of fans because they are very different, right? And every market has a little bit of this nuance where you'll have fans there in Vancouver who probably wouldn't give the time of day for the whitecaps

because they love Man United or they love Real Madrid. And then you've got folks who are just die-hard whitecaps fans, who by the way, might also support rear plate and resist. right? So, you know, it's a very nuanced group of fans soccer in North America. But yeah, the appetite is increasing every year. And we're hearing from brands all the time who are trying to find their entry point into the sport. Yeah, just to kind of focus in on what you were talking about, there are 2026 specifically.

I'm curious about the growth factor, maybe not necessarily for the sport, because I think there's always room for the sport to grow, but as it pertains to MLS, because there are. and 30 clubs total, 27 in the U.S., three in Canada. It sounds like there's going to be a pause on expansion for the time being. So where's the growth potential for the league specifically in 2026 in this summer? Yeah, it's a great question. I think the clubs will find ways to go wider and deeper.

You know, there's no limitation necessarily on how many sponsors you can have and how you can generate revenue. You're only limited sort of by your creativity and the restrictions that are on you related to your building and maybe your ownership's appetite for innovation and creativity. So, you know, you're seeing constantly new categories as it relates to sponsorship, right? New brands, new companies, you know, there are emerging technologies, right? We haven't seen a lot of it yet, but how far away are we from, you know, AI sponsorship of sports teams?

I don't think I've seen one yet, but I can promise you, those are coming. the same way that, you know, not that long ago, a company like Uber was, it didn't exist. And now they're sponsoring, they're sponsoring pro sports team. So I think the starting point is that when you have growth and you have more people tuning in, whether in person attending matches, watching on television, engaging across social, et cetera, is that that's what attracts brands and companies who are willing to spend money. Ultimately, they're trying to grow their business. They want to leverage the kind of cultural capital and the connection of those.

those pro sports teams for their benefit. And those who do it really well are adding to the experience. We're not just slapping their logo on something. They're finding a way to engage and add value and increase connection, entertainment, et cetera, tell the stories of players. But yeah, there's no shortage of ways to try and creatively provide more opportunities for brands to come into the sport. It really is just a limitation of creativity and ideas.

Kyle, this was super cool, man. Very insightful. It was fun talking you today. Thanks for taking the time to do this. I appreciate you guys having me. Good luck. I hope everything works out there in Vancouver, man. You've got an awesome history. That'll be a shame, if anything pulled the white caps out.

So I'm rooting for you. Thanks, man. I appreciate that and very well said. And I agree. Kyle Sheldon, soccer branding and stadium expert here on the Halford and Brough Show on Sports 965. So we're going to play some Elliott Friedman audio coming up, but we had a bunch of texts, and I wanted to address them about why couldn't the white caps move out to the suburbs?

Kevin, ask us anything. Why is it that the white caps wouldn't work out better in the valley, say Langley, where they could get a piece of land cheaper and do a privately funded stadium and build around it? I do wonder if they've considered that. But, you know, I also wonder, you know, where do most of the season ticket holders currently live? You know, what is there, you know, everyone's going to have information on that. on their fan base. Maybe they feel that most of their fans live in Vancouver proper.

I don't know. There's also advantages to having a team downtown. Transit advantages, for example. You see what the South Siders do every game. They walk down, well, they walk down Robson Street and up to the stadium. From the pub to the state. Like that can, I mean, look, you can have that, You can try and port that over to the suburbs, but, you know, the suburbs come with their own disadvantages.

Yeah, is it easier to build out there, cheaper to build? Probably, but how does that affect your attendance? I mean, sometimes it works in the burbs. And there seems to actually be down south at least, almost like a resurgence of suburban stadiums. Now, every city is unique. a lot of these American cities you have to know are not like Vancouver people don't live in the cities

yeah it's a little different you know like even Seattle you don't have the number of you know there's certain areas of Seattle that in the weekend when there's no one working for example in the financial areas they're like there's no one downtown you know they don't even open up like the McDonald's because you know it's just different now the white caps might also be like, yeah, we could build a stadium in Langley and finance that.

Or we could just sell and it could move to Detroit. Well, you know, or Phoenix or something and we get more money for it and we're out. I will say keep an eye on what Surrey's doing because, so the mayor, Brenda Locke and the council and the ones before her, you know, there's been a lot of talk, the bold sort of proclamations about wanting an outdoor stadium. But earlier in February, Surrey did,

there was a call from Canada soccer asking all the communities across Canada to have their expression of interest for a new national training center. Canada soccer wants to have more of these centers and specifically a signature flagship one where the national team programs can meet with regularity

because obviously the logistics of having a national team in Canada is tough because the country is so big. So they're trying to find them. So the city is, So are they going across Canada? For the expressions of interest. Yes. Yeah.

Yeah. They're not just going to BC. They're going across Canada. Across Canada. So they put out a call to all the different communities. So, uh, Surrey responded in kind with,

proposals for several sites, right? They've got like Cloverdale Athletic, South Surrey Athletic Park, Newton Athletic. They've got some very big complexes already. Yeah. That are kind of the infrastructure and the bones of it are there. So a lot of people were trying to connect the dots and thinking, like,

is there something? Is there something creative you could do here? Or could you have a white gaps attachment? attachment to it. So again, you're in the very exploratory stages of this. I mean, you're not even at a memorandum of understanding. You're in an expression of interest. So, but there's something to keep an eye on there. Anyway, I know we're up against our time you wanted to get to the freed stuff. Elliot Freeman had some thoughts on his latest 32 thoughts podcast. And, uh, here's what he's hearing about the Vancouver situation, the Tyler Meyer situation, just the general feel in

Vancouver. You know, the Canucks, they'll listen on just about anything right now, aside from their young players in Philip Bronic. The way this year is gone, they are, they've recognized, I think there's a lot of disappointment inside the organization about where they've gone in two years. And I think if they could move people out of the organization, more of them, they would. And, you know, I think it's going to be hard. Some of those contracts make it difficult. The Myers thing is interesting to me because I don't think,

initially when it got out, Myers found out Tuesday morning that Detroit had an offer for him that Vancouver wanted to consider. Wednesday night, when he sat out the game, I had a couple people tell me that it didn't look like he was going to accept it. I don't know where that stands as of the time we recorded this, but I do think what it does is it opens up other possibilities for Myers. Other teams might come into it. We'll see kind of what happens there.

But I think the thing that Myers has to consider, and I think this does make him consider it is his full protection ends July 1st. and when this happens, you basically have a choice. You can make the call when you have the power or you can risk losing the power. And, you know, I think at this point in time, Myers has to realize that the Canucks are not afraid to move away from him.

So I think they're all working together. And I think the Canucks understand that he won't want to rush. I understand why he does not want to go too far. far in the middle of the season for his family situation. But one way or the other, it does look like, whether it's now or later, Myers knows Vancouver's prepared to move on. So I think the effort now is to try to put him into a situation he's comfortable with. So it sounds like the Canucks actually do think the same way that the show generally thinks.

It's like a lot of these guys got to go. Got to move on. But here's the thing. It's the NHL. It's a hard cap. And sometimes contracts become anchors. Brock Besser has a full no-move clause. Jake DeBrusk has a full no-move clause.

Elias Pedersen has a full no-move clause. Connor Garland, once July 1st hits, has a full no-move clause. loss. And we're going to talk to Rick Dollywell coming up about some of the challenges that the Canucks face. It really is the story of the Canucks over the last decade, not the only story, but one of the main ones. So many of their issues have been self-inflicted.

Bad money on the books. The Oliver Ekman-Larsen trade, you know, they thought they were moving out bad money in the final years of some veterans that had become anchors cap-wise. And guess what? They made it worse. And they brought in more bad money. And now you're looking at a contract like, I don't know, Brock Besser. You know, you're not going to give value for Brock Besser. And he's got a full no move clause. And he's not going to, if they, if they present him with the trade offer, he's going to be like, yeah, I'll think about it. So I do want to say this. And I'm, actually going to give the Canucks a reprieve with the no trade thing because this is a league

wide. It is. It's a league wide. And I'm ready to call it an epidemic. I don't even care about the ramifications. It would be really hard. Let's say you're a new GM and you got the job. And people came in and said, let's say the Canucks had a new GM and they got a question at the press conference was like, are you going to try and limit the no move clauses and the no trade clauses? you might say like, yeah, I'd like to, but then the players won't sign. Like, it's almost like... Or I got to pay more money. Or I got to pay more money.

Or in a hard cap league. Right? I mean, it is, it is insane the number of no-move clauses and no trade clauses in a league. Do you know how many no trade clauses there are in the NBA? How many players have them? No. Two. Two!

Damien Lillard and LeBron James are the only two that have full 100% no trade clauses in the NBA. Yeah. Two. Andrew Mangiopani has one. Right? Yeah.

Like guys like Max Domi got one? They really, really need to address this between the NHLPA and I know that the Players Association is probably going to fight tooth and nail to keep it. Sure. But the NHL needs to look at this. You cannot have

this many restrictions on player movement in a league. It's not good for business. It limits the entertainment value that fans have when they have to do advanced mathematics and go through a list of potential designated no-fly zones for players. It shouldn't be this restrictive to move players. I know.

Also, the league that loves parity does not want teams like Winnipeg to be so disadvantaged and how many you know if you full no move clauses that's one thing but like the no trade clauses Winnipeg's on almost all those right

all of them all of them I don't want to go to Winnipeg I don't want to go to Winnipeg it's countless and here's a thing the consequences and the trickle down effect are that anytime Winnipeg gets a player that they like they're almost forced to sign them to a long term deal where they overpay because they're terrified of the prospect of losing them

Hey. The Canucks are in that situation. Yeah. It's and this is. The Canucks are Winnipeg right now. And part of this is the Canucks fault for being a sad sack franchise for the last two years and being the worst team in the NHL this year. But if you're going to left them off the hook to a certain degree and I do think it's viable and legitimate and honest in terms of assessment, you have to say that no trade clauses in the league have run out of control. Out of control.

way too many of them. Way too many. And they need to try and address this in some fundamental way because year after year we go into the draft and free agency and an off season where all these other leagues understand that there is an inherent value of player movement and the excitement and the drum

and the intrig that it builds with your ticket buying and just your fan base in general. Would you say it would be a smart decision to get rid of no trade clauses? Well, it sure would. be Andy for the second consecutive day and that of course, that's smart decision. And I'm going to call it mine.

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Rick Dollywell, speaking of smart decisions, is going to join us at 8 a.m. And then that's going to be followed by Ask Us Anything and What We Learns. A reminder. still have not awarded the $100 gift card to AJ's pizza on East Broadway for the best ask us anything. If you want to win, hashtag it at AUA, put a pizza emoji into your text. And importantly, make it a good ask us anything. The best one will win $100 to the best pizza place in the world.

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